The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) has announced that it is initiating legal proceedings on behalf of citizens injured by substances mixed into water cannons, and will formally communicate with the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office accordingly.
According to their statement, GYLA is currently providing legal representation to seven victims who continue to suffer health complications, which they attribute to the special crowd-control measures deployed against them by the Ministry of Internal Affairs during protest rallies in November and December 2024.
“As is known to the public, during the dispersal of demonstrations in November and December 2024, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs deployed various types of special means.
On December 1, 2025, the BBC published a documentary film and an accompanying article in which it was alleged that during the dispersal of the November–December 2024 demonstrations, the authorities had purportedly used the chemical compound bromobenzyl cyanide (‘camite’), mixed into the water cannon. On that same date, the State Security Service opened an investigation under both Article 333 of the Criminal Code (abuse of official authority) and Article 319 (assistance to a foreign organisation in hostile activities). On December 6, 2025, the State Security Service issued a statement confirming that a chemical substance had indeed been mixed into the water cannon; however, the SSSG stated that the substance in question was not camite but rather ‘chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile.’ According to the information released by the SSSG, ‘bromobenzyl cyanide,’ or ‘Camite,’ had never been procured by Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.
We draw particular attention to the fact that the mixing of chemical irritants into water cannon is not clearly regulated under Georgian law: neither the Law on Police nor the internal instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs contain provisions establishing such a practice, while the explicit prohibition on the simultaneous use of water cannon, rubber bullets, and tear gas, previously set out in the old version of Order No. 1002 of 2015, has been removed from the current text without the introduction of additional legality standards. As a result, water cannon saturated with chemical irritants cannot be considered a ‘lawfully defined’ and legitimate means of crowd management, and stands in direct contradiction to both national and Convention-based requirements that the use of force be lawful, necessary, and proportionate.
Before December 2025, GYLA had spoken publicly on numerous occasions about the mixing of chemical substances into water cannons, the associated risks, information circulating in public sources, and interviews with protest participants. Several demonstrators who had been exposed to the water cannon reported health problems, including chemical burns to the skin, deterioration of vision, respiratory insufficiency, neurological symptoms, allergic reactions, hearing complications, joint pain, thyroid-related disorders, and other conditions.
Before December 2025, despite repeated calls to do so, the state had refused to publicly reveal what chemical agents it had used during November and December 2024. In January 2025, GYLA submitted a freedom of information request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, asking which chemical substances had been used in the course of police operations in November and December 2024, what chemicals had been mixed into the water cannon, and at what concentrations. GYLA received no response from the Ministry. In January 2025, information sought by GYLA from the Ministry of Health revealed that the Ministry of Health itself did not possess information about the composition of the chemical agents used, and had not sought that information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, citing ‘no necessity’ for doing so.
It is also worth noting that on December 10, 2025, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights wrote to Georgia’s Prosecutor General, stating that the mixing of chemical irritants into water cannon raises serious questions of legality, necessity, and proportionality, and that this matter should form part of the investigation into the use of police force in November and December 2024.
The Commissioner further remarked that in January 2025, the Minister of Internal Affairs had assured them that no chemical substances added to the water cannons that had been used against protest participants. The investigation being conducted by the State Security Service into the use of water cannon and chemical agents at the November–December 2024 protests fails to meet the Convention standard for an effective and independent investigation, given that the same body is simultaneously investigating a potential human rights violation (the use of special means) whilst also casting doubt on whether any such violation occurred at all. In such a configuration, the investigation undermines both institutional and practical independence and appears designed to produce a chilling effect on all those who speak out or otherwise advocate on matters of significant public concern involving human rights violations.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is currently providing legal representation to seven victims who reported various health problems to the organisation, problems from which each of them continues to suffer to this day, and which they attribute to the special crowd-control measures deployed against them by the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the November–December 2024 protests.
The formal complaint submitted on their behalf by GYLA to the Prosecutor General’s Office calls for the following, in accordance with Georgian legislation and international standards: information on the progress of the investigation; the questioning of the injured parties; an assessment of whether the practice of mixing substances into water cannon and deploying it in this manner is compatible with offences defined under the Criminal Code; the carrying out of all investigative measures necessary to identify those responsible; and the formal recognition as victims of the seven individuals who sustained various health injuries as a result of the special means deployed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in November and December 2024. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association will continue its legal advocacy on this matter at both the domestic and international level,” the GYLA statement reads.
In response to today’s GYLA briefing, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, took to social media with a remark: “Where have camite and chemical weapons of World War I gone?”
